We have raised some chicks and pullets and they have just started to reach maturity and lay (hooray!!) and the eggs have been mostly what we expected (they are light sussex's, black australorps, 2 australian pit game, 1 blue australorp, and 1 splash australorp). One of the pit games has been laying a small-ish very light tinted egg, and some of the sussex have started laying medium sized light brown to cream eggs, and this week we have started to see some of the younger pullets beginning to lay - at first someone started to lay light brown eggs, and now another has joined her laying BLUE eggs. This came as a HUGE surprise. Three times now we have fetched blue eggs from the coop's nest boxes along with the others, and we cant figure out who is laying them! Our hens all came from reputable breeders who we are still in contact with and wouldn't have (knowingly) sold anything but a pure-bred bird. All of them have single combs, and plain faces, and their legs and feet are the expected colour for their breed - so no Araucana or Ameraucana characteristics that we can see... I'll go take some pictures, but I'm hoping someone can give me some hints for other clues to look for!

That's really weird, but kind of cool. I'm going to make a total guess and say it's one of the pit game pullets, mainly because they are the only ones that somewhat-but-don't-really have a similar shape to Araucana. And that's only really because the Sussex and Australorp are very different in type, not based on anything 'real', lol.

Perhaps isolate them one by one and see what colour egg they lay when on their own. If it's not blue you can go on to the next until you find out.

It's often said that the blue egg laying gene is closely tied to a pea comb, but it's not 100% a given. I think Cream Legbars have single combs and lay blue eggs, they have Araucana in their heritage but it's obvious that you can breed in the egg colour without keeping the pea comb. However they do carry a crest? I think, which is a different Araucana trait.

It'd be interesting to see what your birds look like and find out which one it is. Interesting surprise to have, I must admit I do like my coloured egg layers!

Here's some pictures of the girls (and boys). One pit game is missing as she's brooding and one of the Sussex is definitely not the blue egg layer as she was in chicken jail for picking on the broody and she continued laying light brown eggs. Actually, looking closer one of the australorps does have an unusual comb - shorter and thicker. Not sure if she is mature enough to be laying yet though...?

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